Redundancy: Hertfordshire

Michael Penning: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 
	(1)  how many people have been made redundant in  (a) Hemel Hempstead and  (b) Hertfordshire in the last six months;
	(2)  how many people identified as unemployed in  (a) Hemel Hempstead and  (b) Hertfordshire had been out of work for 12 months or more in each of the last five months;
	(3)  how many people under the age of 21 years were identified as unemployed in  (a) Hemel Hempstead and  (b) Hertfordshire in each of the last five years;
	(4)  how many people identifying themselves as disabled have been employed in  (a) Hemel Hempstead and  (b) Hertfordshire in each year since 1997.

Kevin Brennan: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	 Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated March 2009:
	As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking how many people have been made redundant in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire in the last six months; how many people under the age of 21 years were identified as unemployed in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire in each of the last five years; how many people identifying themselves as disabled have been employed in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire in each year since 1997; how many people identified as unemployed in (a) Hemel Hempstead and (b) Hertfordshire had been out of work for 12 months or more in each of the last five months. (265801, 265806, 265818 & 265804)
	The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles labour market statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS) and its predecessor the annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions. Estimates of the number of people in employment identifying themselves as disabled have been compiled from this source. However, this source does not support analysis of redundancies at these geographic levels and no alternate source is available. It is also not possible to analyse unemployment by small age groups, or for specific durations, for small geographic areas from this source. As an alternative to that, analyses of the count of claimants of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) for the areas requested has been provided.
	Table 1 shows the number of persons claiming JSA who are under the age of 19 and resident in the Hemel Hempstead constituency or Hertfordshire. Statistics of the count of claimants of persons claiming JSA are not available for persons under the age of 21.
	Table 2 shows the number of persons of all ages claiming JSA for more than 12 months, who are resident in Hemel Hempstead or Hertfordshire.
	Table 3 show the number of persons resident in Hertfordshire, who identified themselves as having a limiting health problem lasting more than 12 months, and were employed. Figures have been provided for periods up to June 2008, the latest period for which figures are available. Estimates for Hemel Hempstead have not been supplied as they are statistically unreliable.
	As even the estimates quoted are for a subset of the population in small geographical areas, they are based on small sample sizes, and are therefore subject to large margins of uncertainty. A guide to the quality of the estimates is given in Table3.
	National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and the claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at
	http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
	
		
			  Table 1. Number of persons aged under 19 claiming Jobseeker's Allowance resident in Hemel Hempstead Constituency and Hertfordshire 
			  As at February each year  Hemel Hempstead  Hertfordshire 
			 2005 268 1,898 
			 2006 322 2,212 
			 2007 280 2,196 
			 2008 242 1,772 
			 2009 378 3,188 
			  Source: Jobcentre Plus administrative system 
		
	
	
		
			  Table 2. Number of persons claiming Jobseeker's Allowance for more than 12 months resident in Hemel Hempstead Constituency and Hertfordshire 
			   Hemel Hempstead  Hertfordshire 
			 October 2008 96 712 
			 November 2008 97 751 
			 December 2008 103 775 
			 January 2009 109 809 
			 February 2009 112 837 
			  Source: Jobcentre Plus administrative system 
		
	
	
		
			  Table 3. Number of disabled( 1)  persons in employment resident in Hertfordshire 
			  12 months ending  Hertfordshire ( T housand) 
			 February 1999 48 
			 February 2000 51 
			 February 2001 56 
			 February 2002 58 
			 February 2003 66 
			 February 2004 63 
			 March 2005 58 
			 March 2006 63 
			 March 2007 52 
			 March 2008 67 
			 June 2008 **69 
			 (1) Persons age 16+ who had a limiting health problem lasting more than 12 months.  Note: Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates. See Guide to Quality below.  Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5% we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220  Key Statistical Robustness * Estimates are considered precise ** Estimates are considered reasonably precise *** Estimates are considered acceptable **** Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes  Source: Annual Population Survey/Annual Labour Force Survey